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Wednesday, 4 May 2016

Tofu Alfredo Sauce

I'm trying to up my family's intake of vegetarian based fare for health and environmental reasons. To that end, I've been experimenting with tofu because it's a very inexpensive source of protein and my kids like it. My vegan niece told me she makes an Alfredo sauce with silken tofu and that happens to be one of my kids' favourite pasta dishes so I thought I'd give it a try.

I discovered there are lots of recipes for Alfredo sauce made with silken tofu. I combined ideas from a few recipes and added some ingredients of my own. Here is my version of a sauce that my Alfredo- sauce- loving son says is very good. This sauce was incredibly easy to make.

Ingredients for basic sauce

500 g package of silken tofu

1 onion, diced

4 cloves garlic, chopped

15 ml horseradish

45 ml cream cheese

125 ml milk

Salt and pepper to taste

Add-ins

This can be anything you like. Prepare the basic sauce first, cook the add-ins and stir them into the basic sauce. I added sauteed, sliced cremini mushrooms (227 g pack). Other ideas: peas, broccoli, roasted peppers, shrimp, chicken, sausage.

What you do

Chop the onion and garlic. I sliced the mushrooms at this point.

Saute the onion and garlic in olive oil.

Put the tofu, horseradish and cream cheese in a bowl and add the sauteed vegetables.

Using an immersion blender, puree the sauce (you could also use a food processor). Add milk to reach a consistency that you like.

At this point, add salt and pepper and puree again. Taste and make some adjustments. I added garlic powder. Next time I'll saute more fresh garlic.

Prepare any add-ins and stir them into the sauce.

Heat the sauce in a pan. Toss the sauce with hot cooked pasta, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and enjoy!